Before class yesterday I had sit, down and focus completely down inside the house, outside it, at the petstore, at the dog park and on walks with no luring anymore, so I was pretty confident on those. Stand still heavy lure but slowly getting it. The real test was going to be if he would do all these once we were at the club with a million other rings going, dogs everywhere, barking, people ect.

Plus we went an hour early because the girl I go with had her Ring Ready class at 7 and puppy class was at 8. Which was good on one hand because he really got to get used to the flow of dogs. It's quieter at 7 so people would trickle in slower and it was less all at once in his face. But on the other hand it was 10 million degree's in there and I was worried about him fading. Now, I don't get hot easily...at all. I love the heat and I was DYING it was so hot.

So we just kinda bopped around for the hour, took him out let him play on the grounds, practised some focus to make sure that was on and then at 8 headed over to the ring we were in.

Once we were spread out in the ring, we were told to work on sits and he did great! Then in a little bit he told us if we had those down work on focus and that was perfect so then I started doing some downs, and sits from downs and focus in all the positions and Traveler just shinned! Even though we had like 10 flies flying around just us, I think it was because of the chicken liver I had, he would be in a sit and all of a sudden whip around to bite his butt.

That paired with the stifling heat just about killed us but he never faltered. I was sweating buckets because I was jumping up and around being enthusiastic to keep his energy up. About half way through I took him out of the ring to our water dish let him drink some and then put all his paws in it and whipped down his chest and stomach with some water too cool him off

Then we did this thing at the end of class-"pass the puppy" which was a decent idea in concept but just didn't work well when executed. Everyone would pass the puppy you had to your right and so on, learning the names and letting the puppies get used to being handled by different people. But it was just a little too crazy to work well. Though, every time I looked over at Traveler, he was on his back getting pet by children

We have a lot of GSD's in the class, one little red merle Aussie, an older Ridgback who Traveler LOVED and the owners where happy because Trav doesn't mind rough play, a poodle, one little tiny dog that I'm not sure what he was, and a few mutts.

And I have to brag for a second, Traveler was the star of the class! A lot of other people were still were luring heavily, on sits and downs and focus. Made me first of all happy I didn't lure for either sit or focus and that I faded it out really fast for down.

Other than what we did in class, Traveler has got a good loose leash walk down, really starting to understand to concept of a loose heel, sits and focus's at stops and I've been working on touch. I'm proud of my little man! He turned 14 weeks old yesterday

Congratulations! Traveler sounds like he's really into working with you. You're really setting a good foundation. That had to be a really great class. You must have been beaming. Well done!

__________________"If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." -- Samuel Adams 1776

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

He really is, very focused, especially so for a puppy, on me and picks things up really fast. Biggest issue is he gets bored by repetition so I really have to mix it up when training more so than I did with Kaylee

My smile went ear to ear! And then I went with my friend to talk to our favorite trainer and I got Traveler to show off for her before he passed out

Thanks! I'm still shining a little inside He even barked to go out to pee while we were in there. I can't take too much credit, he picks things up wickedly fast and will work for food and toys

Quote:

Originally Posted by adojrts

I too don't like the Pass the Puppy, as a student and instructor I wouldn't do it, especially the first night of class.

Yeah, it was just a fail all across the board I thought. It was much more pulling on the puppies leashes trying to get them to keep moving while being shoved person to person and no dog or person could be focused solely on eachother at all which made it even more of a mad house